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Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, (CLG) is an Irish and international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders. The Association also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language. It has more than 500,000 members worldwide. Competitions Gaelic football Main article: List of Gaelic football competitions Hurling Main article: List of hurling competitions Grounds Main article: List of Gaelic Athletic Association stadiums clubhouse in Gweedore, County Donegal. These grounds resemble the typical clubhouses to be found in rural areas all over Ireland.]] The Association has many stadiums scattered throughout Ireland and beyond. Every county, and nearly all clubs, have grounds on which to play their home games, with varying capacities and utilities. The hierarchical structure of the GAA is applied to the use of grounds. Clubs play at their own grounds for the early rounds of the club championship, while the latter rounds from quarter-finals to finals are usually held at a county ground, i.e. the ground where inter-county games take place or where the county board is based. The provincial championship finals are usually played at the same venue every year. However, there have been exceptions, such as in Ulster, where in 2004 and 2005 the Ulster Football Finals were played in Croke Park, as the anticipated attendance was likely to far exceed the capacity of the traditional venue of St Tiernach's Park, Clones. Croke Park Croke Park is the Association's flagship venue and is known colloquially as Croker or Headquarters, since the venue doubles as the Association's base. With a capacity of 82,300, it ranks among the top five stadiums in Europe by capacity, having undergone extensive renovations for most of the 1990s and early 21st century. Every September, Croke Park hosts the All-Ireland inter-county Hurling and Football Finals as the conclusion to the summer championships. Croke Park holds the All-Ireland club football and hurling finals on every St. Patrick's Day. Other grounds The next three biggest grounds are all in Munster: Semple Stadium in Thurles, County Tipperary, with a capacity of 53,000, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, which holds 50,000, and Páirc Uí Chaoimh, County Cork, which can accommodate 43,500. Other grounds with capacities above 25,000 include: *Fitzgerald Stadium, in Killarney, a capacity of 43,180. *MacHale Park in Castlebar, the largest stadium in Connacht (and in the northern half of the country), a capacity of 42,000. *St Tiernach's Park in Clones, County Monaghan, a capacity of 36,000. *Kingspan Breffni Park, in Cavan Town, County Cavan, a capacity of 32,000. *Casement Park, in Belfast, a capacity of 32,600. *O'Moore Park, in Portlaoise, County Laois, a capacity of 27,000. *Healy Park, in Omagh, County Tyrone, a capacity of 26,500. *Pearse Stadium in Galway, a capacity of 26,197. Research by former Fermanagh county footballer Niall Cunningham led to the publication in 2016 by his website, gaapitchlocator.net, of a map of 1,748 GAA grounds in Ireland, ranging from 24 grounds in his own county to 171 in Cork. See also * List of Gaelic Athletic Association stadiums * GAA GPA All Stars Awards * Michael Cusack * Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh * Micheál Ó Hehir * List of All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship finals ;Television * The Sunday Game * Up for the Match * Top 20 GAA Moments External links *GAA official website *GAA TV website *GAA Roll of Honour Category:GAA Category:1884 establishments